Handbook of Watch and Clock Repairs - H. G. Harris.

[Inriad]

Hi everyone,

I came across this book via an online edition. I'm new to watch repair and knew nothing about how watches work so had struggled to make much sense of De Carle's 'Practical Watch Repairing'. I like this book as it explains how a watch movement works as well as how to clean and repair movements.

I was just wondering if anybody else has experience of this book or its sequel 'Advanced Watch and Clock Repair'. If so, what is your opinion of these books?

Thanks.

Teifi.

 

[ocram]

Hi everyone,

I came across this book via an online edition. I'm new to watch repair and knew nothing about how watches work so had struggled to make much sense of De Carle's 'Practical Watch Repairing'. I like this book as it explains how a watch movement works as well as how to clean and repair movements.

I was just wondering if anybody else has experience of this book or its sequel 'Advanced Watch and Clock Repair'. If so, what is your opinion of these books?

Thanks.

Teifi.

Hello Teifi,
From a purely mathematical point of view, Harris' book simply doesn't stand the comparison with De Carle's Practical Watch Repairing. While the former concentrates information pertaining to both watch and clocks in as little as 176 pages, the latter is almost twice as big (319pp, 3rd ed.) and deals with watches only. This difference is also evident in the respective prefaces, where Harris targets the hobbyist while De Carle is aimed to the beginner who wants to earn a living from watch repairing.
Having said that, I like the way Harris writes and I find his handbook is a relaxing read, and even a quite complete one for the amateur (more than the hobbyist) even if some concepts are evidently over simplified and some information appears outdated.
The book can be easily found at a reasonable price (say USD 15 to 30) by the way, where is the online version available?
As usual, more details, facts and opinions on both books by Harris (and three thousands more) are available in the superlative work by Richard Watkins "Mechanical Watches, an annotated bibliography", 2nd ed. 2011 (pdf version currently available for free, see https://mb.nawcc.org/showthread.php?70316-Mechanical-Watches-Second-Edition-2011)
Warm regards and happy reading!
// ocram
P.S. Just for the archive, Harrison, H.G. "Handbook of Watch and Clock Repairs ", ISBN: 9780064635912, New York, first published in 1963 and later revised in 1972 with the following index:

Preface p7
Part One: GENERAL
​

1 Workbench and tools p9
2 Materials p21
3 The turns and their uses p23
​

Part Two: WATCHES
​

4 The movement p29
5 Overhauling and cleaning p35
6 Wheel trains p57
7 Hands, dial and motion work p60
8 Keyless work p66
9 Barrels, mainsprings and fusee chains p71
10 Escapements p79
11 Balances p93
12 Shock proofing p103
13 Cases p109
14 Magnetism p113
​

Part Three: CLOCKS
​

15 The movement p116
16 Pendulum clocks p119
17 Striking clocks p128
18 Chiming clocks p132
19 Grandfather clocks p136
20 Carriage clocks p142
21 Cuckoo clocks p149
22 French clocks p156
23 Alarm clocks p159
24 Electric clocks p167​

Appendix: Mail ordering p170
Index p174
​

 

[Inriad]

Hi ocram,

Thanks for your opinion of 'Handbook of Watch and Clock Repairs'. I'd searched the internet but could find next to nothing about the author or his books. The online version is available at: http://wristwatchcentral.weebly.com/uploads/6/0/1/2/6012893/handbook_of_watch_and_clock_repairsa.pdf

I was unaware of Richard Watkins' 'Mechanical Watches: An Annotated Bibliography of Publications since 1800' so am grateful for the link.

Many thanks for replying to my post.

Teifi.